IE86860B1

IE86860B1 - Removing meat from a shell

Info

Publication number: IE86860B1
Application number: IE20160044A
Authority: IE
Inventors: Thomas Patrick
Original assignee: Whitby Seafoods Ltd
Priority date: 2015-02-06
Filing date: 2016-02-04
Publication date: 2018-01-10
Also published as: GB201502028D0; GB2534932B; GB2534932A; IE20160044A1

Abstract

Meat (42) is removed from a shell (40) by passing the shell (40) through a nip (126). The nip is partly defined by a sphere (124) to which the extracted meat adheres with the meat being carried outwardly and downstream of the nip before coming of the sphere. <Figure 9>

Description

REMOVING MEAT FROM A SHELL The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for removing meat from a shell. The present invention is particularly, although not exclusively, applicable to removing meat from the shell of Nephrops norvegicus.

It is known to remove the shells on tails of Nephrops norvegicus by placing the tails to rest on the shell and with the end of the tails leading the way on a conveyor. The tails are advanced towards two opposed drive rollers. As the tails pass between the rollers the shells move forward between the rollers and the meat is squeezed off the shells to fall into openings in the conveyor in advance of the opposed rollers. Meat falling onto the conveyor to the sides of the opening is damaged and it is crushed and wasted.

US4196495 discloses a method of removing the edible tails of crawfish from the exoskeletal portions by pushing the exoskeletal portion between a concave and convex roller. US6042465 and US4928352 and concerned with peeling crawfish and WO2010/082819 is concerned with peeling shrimps.

Figures 1 to 8 relate to part of the machine that is upstream of where meat is removed from the shell.

Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a machine 10 arranged to align Nephrops norvegicus such as small lobster and to separate the shells from the meat; Figure 2 is a perspective view of part of a conveyor 12 used in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view of supply station arranged to feed Nephrops norvegicus to the machines of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a plan view of the end region of the conveyor shown in Figure 1; Figure 5 is a detailed view of the end region of the conveyor shown in Figure 1; Figure 6 is a plan view of part of the conveyor; Figure 7 shows an alternative section of the machine 10 in the region of the alignment; Figure 8 is a detail of a deflector.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a shell meat removal apparatus is provided including an upper removal member and a lower member which together form a nip through which the shell is arranged, in use to pass through, with at least the upper removal member being rotatable about an axis, the apparatus including a supply direction comprising the direction that, in use, shell containing shell meat is fed to the nip, the upper removal member being rotatable in the supply direction and including a guide surface which, when viewed from the supply direction in a plane that interacts the nip and axis, extends away from the nip to at least one side of the nip comprising a component in a direction perpendicular to the supply direction and another component in a direction towards the rotational axis of the upper removal member, in which, in use, the meat tends to adhere to the guide surface with only the shell being taken through the nip to thereby remove the meat from the shell.

According to another aspect of the present invention a method of removing meat from a shell comprises passing the shell containing the meat in a supply direction towards a nip defined by an upper removal member and a lower member causing the upper removal member to rotate in the supply direction about an axis to take only the shell through the nip with the meat being caused to be fed away from the nip by a guide surface of the upper removal member which, when viewed from the supply direction and in a plane that intersects the nip and axis, extends to at least one side of the nip at least partially comprising component in a direction perpendicular to the supply direction and another component in a direction towards the rotational axis of the upper removal member with the meat tending to adhere to the guide surface and with the guide surface extending downstream of the nip and outwardly from the nip.

Figure 9 is a side view of the end region of the machine 10 that shows how in a preferred embodiment the meat is separated from the exoskeletal portion; and Figures 10 and 11 are sectional views along the lines IX-IX and X-X respectively on Figure 9.

As shown in Figure 1, the machine 10 includes a hopper 14 arranged to convey small lobster 16 from the hopper onto a conveyor 12. Whilst only one conveyor is shown a plurality of conveyors may be provided which plurality of conveyors may be side by side or parallel to each other or both. The conveyor 12 supplies the small lobster onto a transporter 18 that feeds the small lobster through opposed driven rollers 20 that strip the meat off the tails in a known manner. The conveyor 12 includes a channel that is narrower in width than the lengths of the small lobster. The shells of the small lobster passes through the rollers which shells are later dispersed of. The meat is squeezed off the shell and passes through openings 22 in advance of the rollers for subsequent processing.

The conveyor 12, which may be a conveyor inclined downwardly at an angle of between 10° and 30° as shown at 17 for instance towards the transporter 18, may be vibrated to orientate the small lobster such that the small lobster rests on its shell 40 with the meat 42 facing upwardly. The vibration effects this orientation as a result of the heaviest part of the small lobster being in the shell region of the small lobster. The vibration is effected by an eccentric drive 24. The vibration may be continuous or periodic. The vibration assists in causing the small lobster to move down the conveyor. When the lobsters are on their backs or shells they proceed rapidly down the conveyor: on their fronts the meat and the spines from the shells impedes their progress.

Some small lobster on the conveyor will have the tails 44 facing forwardly. Other small lobster will have the tails facing rearwardly. In order to ensure that all of the small lobster leaves the conveyor with the tails facing forwardly, a jet, such as an air jet 29 which may be an air knife, is supplied through the base 26 of the conveyor from a pump 27. The air may be continuously or periodically supplied. The period of air supply may correspond to the period of vibration of the conveyor. There may be more than one such air jet which is spaced from the first air jet.

The rate of flow of air supplied may be between 2L/M and 16 L/M and is preferably 4 L/M for the trailing air jet and 10 L/WI for the leading air jet. The base 26 of the conveyor may include between 5 and 20 openings and is preferably supplied through 10 openings. The diameter of at least some of the openings may be between 4 mm and 0.2 mm and is preferably 1 mm. At least one or some of the openings may be forward facing such as at an angle of 45° to the base of the conveyor in the direction of travel of the lobster. Alternatively or additionally the or each air jet may comprise an air knife slit which may be longer than it is wide. The air through such slits may enter at an inclusive angle to channel of less than 60° such as 30°. The air through such slits may have a different pressure and or volume of air at different locations along the slit which may assist in altering the orientation of products. The air jets may be attached to the conveyor or may be separate from the conveyor.

Either as a result of the end of the tails being lighter than the rest of the small lobster or as a result of the end of the tails having a greater cross-sectional area than the remainder of the small lobster, the tail end regions of the small lobster are caused to be raised as the small lobster passes over the air jets. When the end of the tail leads the small lobster over the jets, the ends of the tails may rise up slightly. However, as the conveyor is inclined downwardly, this raising of the ends of the tails is not sufficient to cause the tails to flip over. However when the ends of the tails face upstream on the conveyor, the raising of the ends of the tails is sufficient to cause the ends of the tails to flip over and to reorientate the tails with the ends leading. This is assisted by the downwards inclination of the conveyor which makes the flipping more readily able to occur. When there is more than one air jet and the tail is facing the wrong way the tail end will lift to bring the tail end into the move concentrated part of the air flow. This brings the other end of the lobster touches the channel causing friction which allows the combination of the two slightly spaced apart air knifes to turn the tail over. There may be a local constriction in the width of the channel in the lower region of the channel on the trailing end of the slit of the upstream slit or the downstream slit or both to assist in the friction effect.

Such a local construction may also assist in allowing different sized products such as the lobster tails to be turned over when required.

Figures 7 and 8 show an alternative arrangement for flipping incorrectly aligned products such that the previously trailing tails are caused to flip over such that the tails subsequently lead.

As shown in Figure 7 air may be directed downwardly and forwardly such as from one side of a conveyor 102 which angle may be 45° to the longitudinal extend of the conveyor 102, such as through a pipe 104. The air may impinge against the base 106 of the conveyor and may also be directed at least partially across the conveyor and may, alternatively or additionally be at least partially directed towards a deflector 108. The air supply may create a vortex.

The deflector 108 may be mounted on the side of the conveyor and may be mounted on the same side as the pipe 104.

In use, a correctly orientated product will advance towards the deflector. As the article approaches the deflector 108 air is directed at least partially upwardly beneath the tail to cause the air to rise above a constriction 110 of the deflector to allow the product to hop over the deflector which may be at least partially through a recess 112 in the deflector.

An incorrectly orientated product will advance towards the constriction and may momentarily abut the constriction 110.

The tail may be subject to an upwardly directed force of air which may cause the tail fins to fan out thereby increasing the force urging the tail upwardly. The tail may also be urged to twist slightly as a result of air acting across the extent of the conveyor. The tail is then caused to flip upwardly and forwardly to fly past and over the tail such that the product leaves the constructor with the tail now leading.

Downstream of the air jets and upstream of the end of the conveyor 12 an inclined turner such as a blade 64 may be provided or shown in Figure 4. The blade 64 may extend from the base 26 of the conveyor and may extend up one side 64 of the conveyor. The blade may assist some of the product 62 which may be on its side, as opposed to on its back, to move onto its back. The product 62 includes small barbs on the shell that engage with the blade 64 to further assist in turning the products to resting on their shell.

Figure 4 also shows a guide 68 which may be provided. The guide may extend beyond the end of the conveyor. The guide may comprise a wire guide. The guide may extend forwardly and downwardly with respect to the inclination of the conveyor 12. The guide 68 may be connected to a non-vibrating part 70 of the machine as shown in Figure 5. This connection may serve to limit the vibration of the guide from that of conveyor 12.

When the leading tail of a lobster on its back comes to the wire guide part of the tail is initially between the wire guide and the side of the channel. Then part of that side of the shell comes between the wire guide and the shell. This causes the lobster tail to flick over such that the meat now faces downwardly as it leaves the conveyor 12. The meat is then stripped from the rollers as previously described. The meat coming off the shell from the underside of the shell rather than from the top side.

It will be appreciated that the meat can be extracted from the shell from either orientation of the product.

Sometimes the small lobsters may be curled up which be due to rigor mortis. Previously such curled products have to be straightened by hand. Figure 3 shows a supply station so that straightens such products.

The small lobsters are fed between a conveyor 52 and an upper stationary member 54. Whilst the member 54 has been described as a stationary member it will be appreciated that the member 54 may flex - it is only stationary relative to the movement of the conveyor.

The small lobsters are fed between a conveyor 52 and the upper stationary member 54. The upper stationary member may be a planar member which may be a rubber member. Alternatively the upper member 54 may comprise a profiled member which may comprise a corrugated member which corrugations may extend transverse such as perpendicular to the direction of travel 58 of the conveyor 52. The corrugations may be formed of rubber or plastic. The stationary member may abut the conveyor when no articles are between the conveyor and the stationary member. Alternatively the stationary member may be spaced from the conveyor, even when no articles are between these members.

As a result of the reduced height between the stationary member and the conveyor the curl the products may be reduced or eliminated such that the products 60 exit the upper member 54 in a straightened condition. The products may not necessarily be aligned. The conveyor 52 then feeds the products on the conveyor 12 shown in Figure 1.

As shown in Figure 6 a deflector 72 is provided on one side wall 74 of the conveyor. The deflector may be coextensive with the air jet or partially coextensive or downstream of the air jet. Air from the jet may be directed forwardly and upwardly and the deflector may cause the air from the jet to be directed also towards the other side wall 76. In this way some of the lobsters may be directed up the other side wall.

A ramp 78 projects upwardly from the side wall 76. The ramp may be a wall that may be curved. Some products may ride up the ramp which may assist in returning the products to the base 26 of the conveyor. The ramp may include a vertical extent along part of its length and a part of the ramp may be angled to face downwardly.

Referring now to Figures 9 to 11, they show how the meat is removed from the exoskeietal portion of the shell fish. Whilst Nephrops norvegicus is primarily referred to herein, the apparatus of Figures 9 to 11 may be used in separation of the shells from shrimp or crawfish or other shell fish.

Preferably the shell fish is provided by the apparatus shown in Figures 2 to 7. However it is possible that another apparatus could supply the shell fish or that the shell fish could be fed manually onto a conveyor.

The shell fish is advanced in the direction 122 so that the shell is nipped between an upper removal member 124 and a lower member 120. The shell 40 is advanced in the direction 122 through and beyond the removal member. The compression of the meat in the nip 126 between the removal member 124 and the lower member 120 squeezes the meat 42 out of the shell to one side and possibly to both sides where successive shell meat is processed. The removal member and the lower member may be biased towards each other. One of the removal member or lower member or both may be relatively movable away from each other to allow only the shell 40 to pass there through. Different sized shellfish may be processed with the larger shellfish causing the members to move further away from each other than the smaller shellfish.

The lower member 120 may be a driven member and may comprise a conveyor. A roller 128 of the conveyor may be located such that part of the roller is in the location of the nip.

The removal member 124 includes a guide surface to at least one side and preferably both sides that extends away from the nip in a direction perpendicular to the direction 122 which surface is spaced from the lower member. The meat tends to adhere to the guide surface of the removal member. With such configuration the meat is able to exit from the nip having a component in a direction perpendicular to nip without being crushed.

Either or both guide surfaces may also be spaced from the lower member in a direction downstream from the nip. With such a configuration the meat may adhere to the guide surface and may also be able to be carried downstream from the nip.

The removal member is rotatable about an axis 128 and the removal member may be a driven member or may be caused to rotate by driving the lower member. By rotating the removal member meat sticking to the guide surfaces is able to be carried out to the side of the nip and also downstream of the nip.

The meat may be arranged to leave the guide surface for instance as a result of the rotational force on the meat from the rotating guide surface. The meat may be flung to the side of the direction 120.

The guide surface extends away from the nip in the direction perpendicular to the direction 122 and also in that direction, also in a direction away from the rotational axis of the lower member and towards the rotational axis of the removal member. This further assists in the removal of the meat to one or both sides.

The removal member may include a curved surface or an arcuate surface such as a three dimensional curved surface or a three dimensional arcuate surface such as part of a sphere or a sphere a part of which surface comprises part of the nip.

Wherein the embodiment has been described with the member 120 being the lower member it will be appreciated that the orientation of the member 120 and the member 124 could be otherwise than as shown such as with the member 120 extending downwardly or such as the nip extending downwardly.

The conveyor 120 may be a planar member as it approaches the nip or in the region of the nip or both.

The conveyor 120 may include a roughened region 130 which may extend along part of the conveyor such as a middle region. The roughened region 130 may comprise part of the nip as it passes through the nip. The roughened region assists in dragging the shell through the nip. This is particularly advantageous when processing small lobsters as the exterior surface of the shell includes a roughened region which assists in resisting sliding of the shell on the conveyor. The roughened region may include granular material such as sand which may comprise a strip of sandpaper adhered to the conveyor.

Although not shown there may be provided a bin to collect the shells as they leave the 5 nip in line with the feed direction and bins to either side of the nip and extending downstream of the nip to collect the meat as it is flung out.

Claims

1. Shell meat removal apparatus including an upper removal member and a lower member which together form a nip through which the shell is arranged, in use, to pass through, with at least the upper removal member being rotatable about an axis, the apparatus including a supply direction comprising the direction that, in use, shell containing shell meat is fed to the nip, the upper removal member being rotatable in the supply direction and including a guide surface which, when viewed in the supply direction and in a plane that intersects the nip and axis, extends away from the nip to at least one side of the nip in a direction comprising a component in a direction perpendicular to the supply direction and another component in a direction towards the rotational axis of the upper removal member, in which, in use, the meat tends to adhere to the guide surface with only the shell being taken through the nip to thereby remove the meat from the shell.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the guide surface is curved.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which the guide surface is curved in three dimensions.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 or 3 in which the guide surface is arcuate.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 in which the guide surface is arcuate in three dimensions.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 in which the guide surface comprises at least part of a sphere.

7. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 2 to 6 in which the nip of the removal member is curved.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim including a guide surface extending away from both sides of the nip each extending in a direction comprising a component in a direction perpendicular to the supply direction and another component in a direction towards the rotational axis of the removal member.

9. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim in which the lower member is a driven member.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 9 in which the drive of the lower member is arranged to rotate the upper removal member.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 9 or 10 in which the lower member includes a linear conveyor with the extent of the linear member defining the supply direction.

12. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim which the lower member includes a roughened surface that comprises part of the nip.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 12 in which the roughened surface comprises granular material.

14. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claims in which the upper removal member and the lower member are biased towards each other.

15. A method of removing meat from a shell comprising passing the shell containing the meat in a supply direction towards a nip defined by an upper removal member and a lower member and causing the upper removal member to rotate in the supply direction about an axis to take only the shell through the nip with the meat being caused to be fed away from the nip by a guide surface of the upper removal member which, when viewed from the supply direction and in a plane that intersects the nip and axis, extends to at least one side of the nip at least partially in a direction comprising a component in a direction perpendicular to the supply direction and another component in a direction towards the rotational axis of the upper removal member with the meat tending to adhere to the guide surface and with the guide surface extending downstream of the nip and outwardly from the nip.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15 comprising biasing the removal member and the lower member towards each other and supplying different sized shell meat successively to the nip and causing the larger sized shellfish to urge the removal member and the lower member to move relative to each other away from each other to allow meat removal for different sized shell meat.

17. A method of removing meat from on a shell as claimed in claims 15 or 16 when using apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 14.